Why is it GOOD Friday?

When I was growing up, I had trouble understanding one detail of the Holy Week. 

I got the whole "Palm Sunday" thing, because John happened to mention palm trees during Christ's "Triumphal Entry" into Jerusalem on the Sunday before Passover. (BTW, he does so only tangentially, and none of Matthew, Mark, or Luke ever mention palms. Palm branches were generally difficult to take down, and the fact that there were ANY in springtime must have been memorable to John, but they probably weren't prevalent. I suspect it was more olive branches and other kinds of vegetation which predominated the celebration. Anyway....)

I got the "Maundy Thursday" thing, "maundy" being the foot-washing celebration which Jesus has the disciples partake in before the "Last Supper" in the upper room. (Though, I confess as a child I thought they were saying "Monday Thursday", which confused the pee out of me...)

I got the Easter celebration, although the phrase "Easter" itself has nothing to do with Christ but rather the spring celebration it usurped. The rising from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ proved that He was Who He said He was, and without that our faith was meaningless. If God isn't 100% accurate in every prophecy, He is not God - and Jesus had to be absolutely correct about being raised on the third day, or else He was just another man, pretending to be the Messiah.

What I didn't understand was why "Good Friday" was so GOOD. I mean, Christ died, man! How can that POSSIBLY have been GOOD?

Because it was His plan all along.

Good Friday was good for the Devil, who thought he'd won by having the Son of God killed, by terminating His Mission on earth.

Good Friday was good for the Pharisees and their religious colleagues, who knew Jesus was a threat to their way of life. They had set out to take him quietly and ended up with a spectacle on a high-feast day, but hey! They got Him out of the way.

But of course, once the entire plan was revealed...once Jesus returned on Sunday, exactly as He said He would, having carried the sins of the world to Hell and returned not only unscathed but in glorified form, we understood who Good Friday had really been good for.

Good Friday was good for Jesus, although very painful, because He had successfully maneuvered the humans in "power" around Him into fulfilling every detail of God's plan to the letter.

Good Friday was good for one criminal on the cross with Him, the one who realized at his death that while he was dying for a crime he deserved to die for, this Man next to him was indeed holy and was dying for others instead of himself. He could only have known that through the touch of the Lord, and for that realization he was in paradise that day with God.

Good Friday was good for the centurion who realized the deity of the Man they had just crucified, when the world groaned in pain at His death. "Surely, this Man was the Son of God."

Good Friday was good for His disciples, who became apostles of a new church that season, having been given PROOF of Jesus' claims to divinity that they could rest their teaching upon.

And most of all, of course, Good Friday was good for you and me.

Our sins were taken away and forgiven. Our eternal destiny was changed forever. The opportunity to go to Heaven was suddenly there for our taking, because we were offered an amazing deal: Christ will pay our bail to keep us out of eternal Hell, a bail we could NEVER pay, in exchange for our following His commandments.

Even if Christ's way was just so-so, it would be an amazing deal.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! 

If you act now, you can also receive the Holy Spirit to live within you, ABSOLUTELY FREE! Christ told us so in Acts 1:4-5... “You heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Sounds like a car salesman! "You heard it from me, friends - you WILL be baptized with the Holy Spirit absolutely FREE!" But Jesus Christ was not a salesman - he was and is GOD, and His Word is Truth. Because He said it, it is true: We DO receive the Holy Spirit, to help us, guide us, point us in the direction of Christ. 

For what purpose? To help us become more like the Perfect Human Being. Will we get there? Not in this lifetime. But the joy of living with God inside you, helping you become better with each passing day, is enough to make the gift Christ gave us on Good Friday the greatest one possible even without the promise of eternal afterlife with Him on top of that.

Good Friday, indeed. Today is a GREAT Friday.

Celebrate it tonight at your church.